Tattoo
by Syberian
Summary: "Instead, he simply let his fingers glide over her black tattoo on her right forearm. It sent chills down her spine whenever he let his fingers linger over a certain area for a few seconds, before continuing its uninterrupted path up and down the dried black ink." Implied Zer0/Athena. Reviews appreciated.


She let him play with her skin, for once.

It wasn't accidental, if anything it was done purposefully for his own curiosity. He had asked her to see her tattoo and she allowed it. Surprisingly, he asked nicely; she was accustomed to people demanding things in her life as shown in great demand when she was the leader of the Omega Squad in the Crimson Lance. They were gone now, but it still left an imprint on her life that simply "asking" for something was something as rare as an act of kindness on Promethia. She would know, she was once stationed there to assassinate a rival company's chairman.

So, he asked in kindness to see her tattoo on her right arm and she allowed it. They sat, cross-legged, in front of each other on the cold pavement outside of Scooter's Garage. It was past the 35th hour mark of Pandora's day cycle, so it was dimly lit with the sun setting behind them to bring out the brightness of the moon; the Helios space station settled in front of it.

Despite her obligations that she would never be able to sleep in the messed up day/night cycle, she actually managed to be well rested. It probably had to factor in that Zer0 had allowed her to take over his bunk in the Raiders' base that she stayed energetic, despite the fact that she was still somewhat confined to Sanctuary for the time being. She didn't mind though, the assassin kept her company with daily sparring sessions that left her with a burning in her arms, legs, and torso.

They had actually just had a recent sparring session, their swords still lying besides them on the pavement. The contrast of each sword stood apparent. Her's was red color and a much more thicker, heavy sword that had a sharp blade on one side, much more use for swinging and hacking than slicing. His was a blue sword katanna, suitable for generally any sort of usage in the art of sparring. They both fought in different styles: her's was a more tank-like style with her performing most of the attacks while he blocked; he had a defensive style, but nonetheless surprised her when he snuck up behind her for a sneak attack, which she blocked most of the time.

She was still slightly winded from their recent spar, but he gave no indication that he was out of breath or tired. Instead, he simply let his fingers glide over her black tattoo on her right forearm. It sent chills down her spine and across the back of her shoulders whenever he let his fingers linger over a certain area for a few seconds, before continuing its uninterrupted path up and down the dried black ink.

Athena watched his leather-clad fingers linger over the smallest omega, before moving downwards into the bigger one. He traced the right side before moving back up the same path and mirroring it with the left side. They had been at this for what... 30 minutes now? He didn't seem attentive by the time, however as he kept his attention on how the ink shined with the sun, giving it a glassy look.

It was strange how much this tattoo interested him, every perfect curve in the arches. Every geometrical shape that was made to create the owl's face. How the omegas were sliced apart midway through to give it the idea of wings. The overall design was simply,but baffling how much workmanship was put into this was as well.

But, there was some mystery in it. He had grown accustomed with mysteries the more time he spent with the Gladiatrix, who sat in front of him. The tattoo was a little _too_ precise. This couldn't have been done by a regular artist who lived in the wastelands that Sanctuary floated above. He highly doubted even a professional could've done this either. The ink was fresh, as if a new coat was added yesterday. The wings were too precise on both sides, no one could've done that without a steady hand. The ends of the omegas lined up perfectly with each other, no doubt done with the same precision of the wings.

As he continued to unlock the mystery of the tattoo, he slowly lost focus that Athena was there. That was until she began to nod off, her chin slowly lowering itself down to her collarbone as her wariness finally overtook her for a short period of rest. He looked up, finally, and sighed at her sleeping form.

_Of course she would sleep/ We've been out here for hours/ I should take her back._

With a slight groan in his knees, he gently lifted her up. Carrying her bridal style, he began to walk back towards the HQ. As they entered through the doorway, he noticed Tannis' sleeping figure across the desk as her head was resting on a pile of papers. He shook his head, chuckling slightly, as he made his way upstairs. Upon reaching the room that housed the bunks, he made his way over to his old bunk, now pre-occupied by the woman he held in his arms. He set her down gently, accidently causing her right arm to fall off the bunk.

He continued to stare down at the tattoo, intrigued by it. Zer0 never had a problem such as this before and it confused him now. How could such a thing as a _tattoo_ peak his interest as much as this one had? He shook his head in a petty attempt to clear his thoughts and took her hand in his. Lifting her arm back across her body, she rested comfortably in her current state: knees bent, shoulders slouched, back curled, head lowered to the point where her chin was touching her chest. A sigh escaped through a nose, a indication that Zer0 had grown accustomed to that showed that she had fallen into a dreamless sleep.

He moved his way over to the worn out couch and sat down, his elbows in his knees and head down as he was deep in thought.

_The tattoo was fresh._

She probably had it re-inked sometime in the past year then. Tattoos usual stayed fresh for about a year before they started to fade. Athena wanted it to stay fresh, then. It must've have some sort of importance to her then. Perhaps a memoir of something or someone in her life, but who?

_The tattoo is too precise._

It was true, the geometrical shapes were too straightforward. The wings and the ends of the omegas were too perfectly balanced to have been done by the common hand, or even the professional hand, of a tattoo artist. It was a beautifully crafted piece of art and had no doubt either been handmade or been done by private sources. He had reason to suspect it was done handmade. Athena had commonly been shown to have good drawing skills as she drew pictures in her downtime, pieces that included regular things such as the tall buildings of Sanctuary to Sanctuary citizens interacting with each other.

_There must be something/ It is more than an owl/ There is a meaning._

He was broke out of his thoughts by the squeal of the bunk. Had he truly been sitting there for almost 30 minutes, deep in thought? Athena was sitting up,back popping uncomfortably, blinking sleep out of her eyes as she searched the room. Her eyes landed on him, clear signs of confusion mixed in the with gray irises.

"You fell asleep. So/ I brought you here to get rest/ I hope you don't mind."

"No, no it's fine," she said, shaking her head as she did so.

Athena noticed his visor was not tilted upwards to meet her eyes, instead it was turned facing at her right arm. She walked over and sat down beside him, causing him to move closer and pick up her right arm and let his fingers trail, once again, over the smooth black ink. He let out a grunt before turning to face her.

"This means something, no?/ It clearly does, Athena./ I'd like to know, please."

She was flabbergasted, but did not show it. No one ever expected anything other than the common answer that it was an owl. True, it was mostly design to look like an owl, but there was a deeper meaning in the ink than just a bird. She nodded, answering his question and scooted closer to the point where their knees were touching.

"Yes, this means something,"

A red '?' formed on his visor as he continued to trace the outline of it, waiting for an answer from her.

She pointed towards the two omegas using her index finger and thumb.

"My sister and I. The smallest one is my younger sister, the largest is me. They are connected because we were connected through blood; family,"

She grabbed his hand and traced the winged pattern that traced the outline of both omegas.

"What I wanted for the both of us: escape."

She stopped his hand and he fisted it over the face of the smaller omega. It took her a moment to swallow before she continued.

"This face can also be represented as skull. It signifies that she is dead."

Zer0 gave a contempted grunt as he took his hand from Athena's and traced his own pattern into her skin, once more. Trailing up and down the omegas, fingers lingering over the face of the smaller one. It was a message to herself, burned into her skin in black. Permanent, undoubtfully.

"Why?" he asked.

Athena thought for a moment.

_Why?_

Why had she actually tattoo-ed this onto herself? She cleared her throat.

"To not forget family. To not forget that I killed my own sibling. But most importantly, to not forget that I still have some of her with me,"

Zer0 nodded with her words, finally understanding it.

And understood her a slight bit more, peculiarly. Despite her near eidetic memory, she wanted to remember the one thing she often sought out to forget. Not as a torturous device that was edged into her skin, but more as a memoir as he had speculated it to be before.

"What about you? Got any tattoos I can see?" she joked.

Zer0 smiled underneath his mask, a common thing he'd been doing lately that Athena had been around.

_Maybe some day._

"Yes, but not for show./ I dislike showing my skin/ To others, sorry."

"I understand, assassin."

He abruptly got up, causing Athena's arm to fall out of his lap and onto the couch. She looked up at him, a blank look in her eyes as she waited for him to say something. He waved farewell, causing Athena to do the same and went back downstairs, arms behind his back and he walked deep in thought.

_Maybe some day, Gladiatrix._

**Author's Note: Totally ship them. Another headcanon on my blog that Athena's tattoo has a deeper meaning than just being an owl. Hope you enjoy! Thanks for reading.**

**Update 11/25: Added in a lot of details and fixed some grammatical mistakes.**


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